FOSSIL REPTILES. 233 



ton. The little gavial has never more than sixty-eight. This 

 difference is especially owing to the tail. It has at least ten 

 vertebrae more than that of any known crocodile. 



The spinous processes of the cervical vertebrae are square 

 and touch together, which, in the little gavial, takes place only 

 in the dorsal. The articular apophyses of the same vertebrae 

 are also less advanced beyond their body. This difference 

 continues in the back. There are no traces of the lower spinous 

 processes which exist in the last cervical and first dorsal verte- 

 brae of the little gavial. The vertebrae of the tail, beside their 

 greater number, are sensibly thicker and shorter than those of 

 the little gavial. Their spinous processes, like those of the 

 cervical, are broader, and approximate more together, especially 

 towards the middle of the tail. 



The neck of the iliac bones is longer, and the ischium has its 

 widened part much more broad and short than in the little 

 gavial. The length of the femur in the fossil is more than dou- 

 ble that of the tibia. In the little gavial it exceeds it only by 

 a fourth. The tibia is thicker in proportion to its length, and 

 the same difference takes place in the metatarsian bones, and 

 particularly in those of the little toe. These differences are 

 assuredly more than sufficient to prove that this fossil gavial is 

 of an unknown species. M. Soemmering has called it Croco- 

 DiLus PRiscus, and gives these characters: Rostro elongato 

 cylindrico, dentibus inferis alternatim longiorihus^ femoribus 

 dupla tibiarum longitudine. 



The entire length of the individual described by M. Soem- 

 mering is two feet, eleven inches, seven lines, French measure. 

 It is very remarkable that the tail should not be longer in pro- 

 portion than the body, though it has ten additional vertebrae. 



In the collection at Dresden is another fossil specimen, found 

 at a place called Boll, in Wirtemberg, remarkable both for its 

 baths and the fossils in their neighbourhood. It is situated 

 between the Wils and the Lindach, two streams of the Necker 

 at the north-west foot of the Albe of Suabia, which is a conti- 



